Top o’ the morning to ye! Erin Go Bragh! Kiss me, I’m Irish, and all that jazz! In other words, HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

By the way, do you know what “Erin Go Bragh” means? It does NOT mean “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” Want to know how I know? Well, let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time when I was just a wee lassie (translation: junior high) our church hired a new student pastor. Now that I’m years removed from the incident, I can admit that it is highly possible that I had a wee crush (I’m really wanting to push this whole Irish theme and I don’t know many Irish phrases so you’re just going to have to endure the “wee” bit.) on him. I’m not talking “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” (although that is my favorite Police song) crush. I’m talking “admire from afar” crush. He started the job around St. Patrick’s Day and I had baked some cookies (Maybe I was stressed.) so I put a few in a baggie and decorated it with Charlie Brown St. Patrick’s Day stickers.

One of them was a picture of Snoopy holding a sign that said “Erin Go Bragh.” I had no idea what that meant but I figured it was something Irish and Snoopy wouldn’t hold up a sign with an objectionable message so I felt safe. I shyly gave New Student Guy my humble offering.

One of the moms who helped out in the student ministry just happened to be standing there and she saw the “Erin Go Bragh” sticker and said, “Hey! Doesn’t that mean, ‘Kiss me, I’m Irish!'”? She said that out loud. In front of the whole entire world. Into a megaphone. And my face was immediately shown on a giant Jumbotron screen that the entire state of South Carolina could see (and some North Carolinians who were near the border, perhaps at Carowinds, where you can stand in both North AND South Carolina.).

Okay, I made up the part about the megaphone and the Jumbotron, but I was in junior high, for crying out loud! I was mortified! It might as well have made the news. This was way before Google, boys and girls, so I couldn’t immediately find out if she was right about what “EGB” meant. No, I had to look in a book. I had to use an index and find the answer in an “en-cy-clo-ped-i-a.” Ask your parents about them. What I discovered was that “Erin Go Bragh” means “Ireland Forever.” All that humiliation and embarrassment for naught.

Anyway, today we started out St. Patrick’s Day with green milk! Later today we’re making another batch of St. Patrick’s Day cookies with icing. Yesterday we practiced our own river dance to Dropkick Murphys “Shipping Up to Boston” and we have our Irish playlist set to play throughout the day with The Cranberries, Ceili Rain, Bing Crosby, Van Morrison, of course U2, and any other Irish artists I was able to scrounge up from my iPod library. I wish I knew how to post a video so you could see our dance. It’s a thing of beauty. And I have cute pictures of the milk and the cookies, but I’m having technical difficulties today so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Also, we’re making some signs for Papa today. The signs are totally unrelated to St. Patrick’s Day but we have yet another reason to celebrate today…. Today is my dad’s LAST TomoTherapy treatment !! WOO HOO!! We definitely want to celebrate reaching that milestone!!

Growing up, my mom always made holidays special. Not just the big ones. We didn’t necessarily do anything elaborate, but she always found ways to make days more special. It’s really not that difficult to “celebrate the moments” of even the most mundane days and to make little celebrations into big ones. We had a picnic every year on the last day of school. Sometimes we celebrated our half birthdays. The first snow of the year (when we lived where it would snow on occasion) was celebrated like a major holiday. Mom decorated for every season and every holiday. It always made me feel like our lives were special and we were special because she took the time and made an effort to make days special. I’m trying to start those kind of traditions in our family. Today I added a few drops of food coloring to the Little People’s milk and presto, we made a memory.

Do you have any special family traditions or ways that you make simple occasions special? I’d love to hear some of your creative ideas…mainly so I could steal them! ;)

By the way, I don’t know her, but I regularly read Kellie’s blog La Vida Dulce, and today she had a link to a blog by a writer who actually lives in Ireland!! How cool is that?! Anyway, in today’s blog she has a link to other blogs that are posting about St. Patrick’s Day! I’m going to see if I can get some fun new ideas and get a true Irish perspective on the day. Make sure you’re wearing your green (or you’ll get a nasty internet pinch) and come join me!

Pancakes always seem to bring celebration at my house. This morning, it was, of course, green pancakes. On Valentine’s Day it was, of course, heart shaped pancakes. On birthdays, we have “A” and “G” or “Z” pancakes. And on random days we like to make special, we’ll throw a little sprinkles into the mix.

Chaneys LOVE pancakes.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and YAY for the last day of Tomotherapy! What a great day!!!!! :)

Thanks for your nice comments. I think my name’s a little long actually, but nothing I can do about that now. Didn’t mean to make you impatient for Ireland. I was only able to go because my parents donated credit card miles for my ticket and my brother and I shared expenses. Not ideal, traveling with the brother and all, but it worked. Have a lovely day!